Naming the silicon: meet Voltaris
Why our GPUs are predators and our superchips are storms - building a fictional hardware vendor that feels real without naming any real one.
We needed hardware that reads as obviously the cutting edge without ever naming a real chipmaker. Enter Voltaris, the in-world vendor - and a naming system rigid enough to extend forever.
Predators and storms
- GPU architectures are predators: Apex A, Hawk H, BlackMamba B, Raptor R.
- CPU / superchip prefixes are storms: Gale G, Vortex V.
- A superchip is always Storm-Predator - so the GH-class becomes Gale-Hawk.
That gives us the Level 1 ladder players climb by cumulative earnings:
| Display name | $/GPU | Unlocks at |
|---|---|---|
| Hawk H100 | $30k | start |
| Hawk H200 | $34k | $1.2M earned |
| Gale-Hawk GH200 | $40k | $4.0M earned |
| Gale-Hawk GH300 | $48k | $10M earned |
Future-proof by construction
New GPU generation? Take the next predator - Cobra, Talon, Jackal, Falcon. New CPU generation? The next storm - Cyclone, Monsoon, Tempest, Squall. We can ship new silicon for years and never paint ourselves into a corner.
One implementation note for the curious: internal save and data IDs keep the
real-world codes (H100, GH200, …) so the economy data stays legible, while
every display string routes through gpus.json - the player only ever sees the
predator-and-storm names.